High Road

I first appeared in Scottish Television's long-running 'soap' HIGH ROAD as a Rough Raver in a party scene in 1995, with the immortal line "How Man, Gonnae chill out,eh?" A few months later I was invited in by Producer John G Temple to have a chat about a new bad boy character they were introducing. After a quick chat about the storyline I met Producer Liz Lake and a week later found myself filming my first scenes in Glendarroch..! Paul Lafferty was to become my alter-ego for the next 8 years and the character I am still most closely identified with. Lafferty was a motorcycle-riding leather-clad hoodlum with a rich father and a head full of scams. He soon teamed up with Chic Cherry at the garage and romanced half the village. Lafferty was dealing drugs, doped with steroids, ram-raiding with fire engines and selling illicit booze in his girlfriend's nightclub. He was drugging Trish MacDonald (Natalie Robb) whilst romancing Sally (Cat Evans) before Trish got wise and drugged him back, leaving him dying in a gas-filled cottage. Saved by Victor (Iain Andrew) and Trish's father, he was soon incarcerated for beating up Sally. He returned to more heroic storylines, preventing a rapist and winning the Ben Darroch Hill Race-without steroids! The show celebrated it's 25th anniversary with the cast naming a train at a ceremony at Central Station and yet weeks later we were informed it was all over. The show ran until 2003 and I am immensely proud of my time there and the cast were superb to work with. I still miss these days and the crew who became like a second family to me. HIGH ROAD was a huge part of Scotland's television cultural history and I feel sure one day it will be revisited.